Church Of St Martin Le Grand

Church of St Martin-le-Grand, York

This parish church on Coney Street is a substantial building of mixed dates, with an early 15th-century tower and west end that incorporates surviving fragments of an 11th-century church. The south side was rebuilt and a porch added during major restorations in 1853–54. The nave, north side and east end were completely remodelled and reconstructed between 1961 and 1968 following severe bomb damage sustained in 1942. The church is built principally of magnesian limestone ashlar, with areas of gritstone and rubble; fragments of coffin lids with incised crosses are incorporated into the former north aisle wall. The building is covered by a lead roof with a coved eaves string beneath the parapet.

The plan is unusual: the original five-bay south aisle was converted to serve as the nave, with a narrow north aisle and a short transept. At the west end stands a south-west tower, vestry and offices; the remainder of the church has been converted to a garden. The east end of the nave is particularly notable, rebuilt as a tall two-centred arch of two continuously moulded chamfered orders set between gabled buttresses carved with angel gargoyles. The arch is closed by set-back iron gates and railings. A clock mounted on a scrolled bracket, added in 1856, supports a painted and carved figure known as the 'Little Admiral', dating to 1778.

The exterior displays considerable architectural detail. The south side is buttressed and set on a chamfered plinth, with four windows of three cinquefoiled lights with cusped panel tracery above in four-centred heads, all beneath head-stopped hoodmoulds. The south-east angle buttress is offset, with its upper part reshaped as a flying buttress surmounted by a crocketed pinnacle and a gargoyle at eaves level. The north side incorporates 11th-century masonry towards the west end and contains a blocked door with a two-centred head at its centre, together with a blocked window featuring intersecting tracery towards the east end. A gabled porch towards the west end has crocketed diagonal buttresses, a traceried parapet and a moulded doorway in a two-centred arch.

The west end incorporates 11th-century masonry to the north, marked by a blocked round-headed doorway. The west window was rebuilt as a three-light mullion window, preserving the lower moulded corners and sill of the original. The three-stage buttressed tower to the south-west, set on a double chamfered plinth, contains windows on all three stages similar to those on the south side: three lights on the ground and belfry stages and two lights on the second stage, each with coved hoodmoulds. Coved strings run beneath the belfry stage and at the eaves below the original open parapet. A weathervane with a scrolled finial crowns the structure.

The interior retains remains of the north arcade of four truncated octagonal columns, now visible from the garden. The south arcade consists of five two-centred arches of two chamfered orders dying into octagonal columns, with a tower pier at the western end. Two-centred hollow chamfered tower arches die into the south and west walls and a north-east pier, to which two carved stone heads are attached—one a lion and one a bearded male. The tower stair is located in the south-west angle, approached through a chamfered doorway with a four-centred head. A reconstructed window in the north transept contains five cinquefoiled lights with cusped panel traceried head. The south aisle roof is coffered with moulded beams and plates, featuring carved bosses at intersections.

The church retains a medieval octagonal font on a 20th-century base, with an octagonal cover of open volutes crowned by a dove; the rim is inscribed: ANO DOM 1717 RICHARD SPEIGHT RICHARD MANCHLIN CHURCH WARDENS. Modern pews are in place.

The stained glass includes pieces in the north transept window reset from the former west window, given by Robert Semer, vicar 1425–43. Other windows contain 15th-century glass, either reset or set within 19th-century glass by JW Knowles; the east window contains 20th-century glass by H Stammers.

Monuments of note include a segment-pedimented tablet on the Sanctuary north wall, set between fluted Composite pilasters with a gadrooned base and winged skull below, commemorating Robert Horsfield (died 1711) and his four of five wives and seven children, together with an inscribed brass to Thomas Colthust (died 1588). On the north wall stands a carved monument to Lady Elizabeth Sheffield (died 1633), framed by pilasters with a pediment and incorporating busts and figures. In the south aisle is a niche on an angel corbel beneath a vaulted canopy, containing memorials to John Kendall (died 1823) and his wife (died 1833); a brass plate commemorates Valentine Nalson (died 1722/3), pastor and succentor of York Minster, with his shield of arms.

The 19th-century restorations were undertaken by JB and W Atkinson. The 20th-century reconstruction, including the iron gates and railings, was carried out by G Pace. The church is attached to gates to a garden.